Thursday, 26 April 2012

[REVIEW] Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. (From Goodreads)

First, I've tried very hard to like this series but no matter how much I read it, I just can't seem to like it as much as I thought I would.

Beautiful Darkness starts out almost exactly after the events of the prevous book. There is little introduction and little facts about the previous book that I found to be quite helpful since it's been awhile since I've read Beautiful Creatures. That's probably the only thing I have positive to say about this book. (Do you see where this is going?)

The characters in this book are very generic. And it is blatently obvious when the authors include some plot turning event or information to move the story along and continue it. Honestly, the story could have continued differently from what the current path is, but I have a feeling that since this is young adult, there is a need for there to be a happy ending, or somewhat happy ending, for the two main characters. i.e. we get plot turners that are very obviously put there so the story goes in the right direction. I've honestly encountered multiple occasions when reading this book where I've pondered to myself how stupid the characters are.

SPOILERLena becomes all depressed during this book and decides to leave Ethan. By concidence (probably not) a new MORTAL girl comes to town catching Ethan's attention. Seriously, Ethan ditch Lena and make the mortal your girlfriend. He really should have just left her but of course it is revealed that Ethan is actually a "wayward" i.e. he has to guide Lena and when he realizes why Lena left him it's like a ephiphonal moment and now he needs to save Lena if it's the last thing he does. "What just happened?" That was honestly my first response to this when I read it. What happened to leaving Lena and living a normal life? Hmm? Of course not because then the story wouldn't be intersting. Then they decide to really mess things up by showing what Lena claimed. MAJOR SPOILER but clearly they didn't make it so she picked either light or dark. No, of course Lena had to be special and pick both, making it so the entire second book was pointless searching and depressing moments. Hurrah. But seriously, her choice, at the last 50 pages or so made the previous parts absolutely pointless. The driving force of the second book was Lena's choice and look what happened. Complete dissapointment. Now the story is taking a different route but honeestly I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same outline.

I've rarely found books about witchcraft that I've absolutely loved, and Beautiful Darkness is no exception. It's not good, but not bad. Just that a lot of scenes became too predicatable and generic and didn't make sense but was added anyway.

I have nothing else to say about this book and if you choose to read it, please write what you thing about this booka nd let me know. I'm quite curious to see what other people think of it. Whether you agree with me or not.

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About Me

Hi! My name's Gail and I love to read. You can usually find me reading a book while drinking tea at the same time. And most of the time that book may be a dystopia literature since I seem to have a knack for finding them... I'm a die-hard romantic and always expect the fairy tale ending, although a couple lover quarrels along the way is to be expected (and appreciated).